this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I can get a two dollar raise...

Well it's better than the FUCKING CONCENTRATION CAMP I'd get from the other guy

[–] [email protected] 2 points 48 minutes ago

Yeah except the concentration camps come with free room and board.*

*Charges for the room and board will be deducted from your earnings as a slave.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

$15/hr works out to be about 30k/yr. That's not enough to live on. We need a $30 minimum wage. It needs to be indexed to both inflation as well as congressional salary. If they get a raise, everyone gets a raise.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 38 minutes ago

Canadian but same problem here. Long term we need UBI worldwide if we plan on ever moving forward as a species.

Short term we need benefits for those less fortunate keyed to inflation at a bare minimum. In Ontario people with disabilities are paid below the poverty line. It's disgusting.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah that fight for 15 was in 2016. We are way past that fight needs to be fucking 25 to 30. But watch every single fucking Republican will vote against any increases of minimum wage. 7.25 is a fucking joke and law makers should be fucking ashame of themselves.

Actually any of them vote no on a raise should have all their money seized and made to live on minimum wage for 5 years.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Law makers should be making 7.25 an hour, and only when they are on the floor.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 39 minutes ago* (last edited 31 minutes ago)

All of the Representative jobs used to be part time. ie People had real jobs that earned their living, and they also did their government work on top of that. And that was when travel took forever.

In other words, one of the primary reasons we are at this point today, is because far too many politicians realized they could simply bilk the State, while doing fuckall for careers spanning 30-40-50 YEARS.

If we take President Biden as an example, the man was elected to the US Senate in 1972! And there are many such examples.

And what's been the outcome? A better democratic process? No. Higher quality of life for citizens? No. More competitive American goods in the Intl marketplace? No.

So what are we getting for our dollars? And why would we want these fossils (regardless of Party) to remain? They're clearly not serving American interests.

[–] jaemo 2 points 1 hour ago

Why not pay everyone fairly instead of incentivizing further corruption through bribery? I'm definitely not going to dispute that they should be paid for the quality and quantity of results generated in terms of legislation...

IMO government work should be volunteer, but you get your clothes, food, and living expenses paid for our of a set budget. You take no salary and accept no bribes, you live in "Government City". Essentially your finances go null entropy while in office. You do a good job? Public likes you? Private sector likes you? You're top of the list for top paying jobs when you step down.

But only AFTER you do the good work we need leaders to do for us.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Good!

Now also link it to yearly inflation annually in December!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

The number needs to be set to a good value, but this is the most frustrating aspects of this whole song and dance because there shouldn't even be a question about whether it should track inflation. Just setting another flat value so we can watch it atrophy away is maddening. The whole concept is directly related to the cost of goods, and the people needing this wage are the most impacted by price changes. And since it's supposed to be a floor, you know minimum wage employers aren't going to voluntarily raise wages to track inflation. They'd be paying even less if they were allowed.

Even if the businesses-first majority of politicians try to low-ball the target, there's no legitimate argument for not making it auto-update. Businesses just like to reap the extra exploitation between updates.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 23 hours ago

fight for 15 years late

[–] [email protected] 18 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Name a more iconic duo than politicians and making promises that rely on the cooperation of other branches of government.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Not voting in enough Democrats into Congress to do anything and saying the Democrats didn’t actually want to do anything

[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago

Politicians being bought and sold to the highest bidder of the campaign trail.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Doubling the federal minimum wage would be $14.0 not $15

[–] [email protected] 3 points 38 minutes ago* (last edited 38 minutes ago)

Actually it would be $14.50 if you want to get really pedantic

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

If the house and Senate approve. She can't just do it on her own

[–] [email protected] 9 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

This was literally her supposed signature issue when she was running with Biden.

She didn’t fight for it at all.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Whaaaaat??

A politician making a bunch of claims right before an election and then never following through on them?

Say it ain't so! Not in my America!

Yeah it's lying season. Both sides are telling us what they think we want to hear.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago

This election does seem a little weird. Kamala feels like more of the same but Tim walz is right, Trump and his supporters are really kind of weird and creepy.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Wait, doubling it -to- 15 dollars an hour? Holy shit, I knew it was bad, but that is insane. Ours is already starting to feel too low at 17.40 here in Canada, granted that is about the equivalent of around $12.50 USD. So it's lower than what she is proposing, maybe if she manages it, we'll be able to get ours up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It'd only put the US at 5th in the world for minimum wage, which considering the cost of living in the US vs most other countries.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

TBF developed countries like Switzerland don't have a minimum wage law, but have near universal union representation.

[–] Huckledebuck 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, the states have been moving towards 15, but the national minimum wage has been stuck for a few decades. And also yes, 15 is already way too low.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Even the McDonalds around here know that even the most desperate laugh at 7.25 an hour

[–] [email protected] 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

The last place I worked upped their minimum wage to $10 an hour. It certainly wasn't because of benevolence or federal shifts...they slowly realized that when you pay the absolute minimum, you only attract the minimum talent, and most of those positions had very high turnover rates that were costing the company more than it'd be to just raise the starting pay rates.

It was cheaper to pay those positions more money.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 20 hours ago

Unfortunately in my state where the minimum wage is higher than the federal, many service industry companies refuse to learn that lesson. Or they think 16 cents above minimum wage is enough to attract top tier talent.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

I believe all promises that are made within the last 30 days of an election!

[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And note that her wording was "at least $15", so she's signaling openness to doing more than that

[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 day ago

Good, because "fight for $15" has been going on so long that the real number to regain parity with what minimum wage used to be is a lot higher than that by now.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Surely we'll get it this time.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago (9 children)

I'll believe it when I see it. Seems every candidate has promised this for as long as I've been following American politics and no one actually manages it.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I doubt many people make anywhere close to minimum, but no excuse not to raise it!

5-years ago? Yep, we had tons of clients paying rock bottom, or close enough. I'm not in the payroll business anymore, but the jobs my wife was looking at as a preschool teacher were $12+, and that job always pays shit. Walmart and Target start at $15, or more.

All this is a small town where you would expect small wages. I was in Manhattan in 1992 and was astounded at the prices. Ask my native friend how people survived on minimum wage. He looked at me funny and laughed, "Dude. No one gets minimum wage. $10 is as low as it goes."

Good news on one of those shit paying clients! They were really hurting and the new CEO turned everything around in a couple of years. At that time, they started paying $12, paying benefits and paying for education.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

I doubt many people make anywhere close to minimum, but no excuse not to raise it!

That's in fact one of the best reasons to raise it as it's a clear indicator it's failing to perform its purpose. We know the are exploitative employers who will pay as low as they possibly can and nothing has changed in our economy or country to suggest that the market now naturally provides a baseline living wage, so it rarely being in effect is a big flashing red sign that it's woefully out of date.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Economies work from the bottom up and never the top down. The more money people have, the more money they can spend, and thus the more goods and services they can buy, and thus the more demand there is, and thus the more supply there will be.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 22 hours ago

This has been my argument for years. If you want a strong economy have a strong middle class...they're the ones with the disposable income.

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